The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1887-09-11
BEER DOES 1T.
The Favorite Malt Liquor Responsible for a
Large Amount of Female Inebriety.
New York Mail and Express.

The Favorite Malt Liquor Responsible for q
Large Amount of Female Inebriety.
New York Mail and Express.
Beer does it."
Does whatQ" asked the reporter.
lit starts them" replied the police sergeant.
"Do you see that woman2'
1t would have been impossible not to see her,
and having her once it would be even more
difficult forget her. She not old. yet she
was bent and crooked scrub oak Her dress
was of the poorest quality, bedraggled, soiled
and ragged. Her face was scanned with lines OF
dissipation. and her brown hair hung down her
back in matted and tangled coil She leaned
heavily against the sergea1ts desk, and looked
dcfautly around her.
MARY" said the sergeant, what is it this
timel"
'Nothin,," responded the woman.
''What is it, offcerl"
Drunk and disorderly," replied the officer.
''She was singing There is better land to
the tune of We won't go home till morning on
Tenth avenue about hour ago, and when I
went to take her in she laid down in the gutter
and had to get truck to haul her to the sta
tion-house;" and the officer wiped his face as
though the recollection even made him warm.
Take her down stairs" remarked the
geant- mo need OF questioning her. I know
her pedigree. Ten years ago." continued the
sergeant addressing the reporter. Mary was
pretty girl lived in this ward. I once
thought OF marrying her myself, but friend of
mine was ahead of me and the wedding was the
event of the season"
What is the cause of her downfal2"
Beer started her. John, her husband-he
divorced from her five years ACCUSED to
bring home beer in the evening, and she got to
like it too we'll. Now she drinks stale beer in
tin cans when she can't get whiskey rum. I
tell you, beer starts most of them Out of fifty
women arrested here last summer learned that
thirty of them got their first taste for liquor
from beer"
Yesterday the reporter questioned a promi-
nent physician of this city, who was for several
years connected with the staff of the Fort Ham
ilton Home for Inebriates, regarding the way
women begin to drink
Il have studied rather carefully into this sub
ject. replied the doctor. land have few
figures which may be interesting. Out of 200
inebrate women some of whom belong to our
socalled first society found that 126 began
their drinking by the OF beer, 81 by drinking
whisky las punch at first usually, 20 began
with wine, with gin. and IL could not remem-
Der what beverage was first used. Ofthe bever-
ages first used, while in but 81 cases
become the favorite beverage. Several
hopeless drunkards far gone toward insanity,
had never drunk any other intoxicant than beer.
One hundred and twenty-five were committed
to prison for drunkenness ffty-six for offenses
against chastity and public order, and sixteen
for against Their ages when
were between 30 and Al years of age. 49 between
20 and 81 years Of age, 81 between 20 and %
years OF age, 80 between 10 and 81 years of age
The remainder were over Al years of age"
How did this drinking affect their children
81 have some statistics this subject, toe.
OF Ill lnebriate mothers, SO of whom had ins
oriate husbands, 405 children born. OF
these 227 persisted In infancy and early child
hood. and of the survivors many are doomed
evidently to early death In many cases the
death of these children indirectly due to
the inebrety of the parents, cold, depriva-
ton, etc. Ages: Twenty-seven of the 204 wom-
en- began to drink intoxcants before they were
ten years of age; eleven between the ages Of
nine and fifteen; seventy four between fourteen
and twenty-one; thirty-seven between twenty
and twenty six; thirty-three between twenty
five ana thirty-one; nineteen between thirty
and forty-one; thres between forty AMI fifty
one"
"Do most women begin drinking early in
life2"
THE average age when they began WAS eight
and one-half years. More than one half had
formed habits of intemperance before they were
twenty-one years of age. and more than one
third at the giddy age OF from fifteen to twenty
inclusive. One hundred and thrty-two began
to drink socially and with female friends"
The police sergeant was right, Beer does it."